Even two decades after its release, ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar‘ remains a landmark of Bollywood cinema, for all the romance, friendship, family, and sports drama it miraculously tries to combine into a coherent cinematic experience. The enduring nature of this cult classic comes despite controversy and added reshoots caused by massive casting and crew changes during production.
In a recent episode of Cyrus Broacha‘s YouTube podcast, actor and director Deven Bhojani shared some of his insider tales of drama that went on behind the camera.
Bhojani, who was to act in the film, says he signed on only as assistant director when the shoot began. “Farah Khan was signing it out as assistant director,” he points out, “but she had to leave that scene because she was asked to choreograph Kabhi Khushi. So, I came in to fulfill her tenure.” He insists that nearly 40-50% of the film needed to be shot again when the cast was changed while shooting in Ooty and Kodaikanal over a month and a half.
He remembered, “Milind Soman was doing the role of Deepak Tijori, Karishma Pahuja was to do Puja Bedi’s role and Girija was to play Aisha Jhulka’s role.” But a string of problems with attitude and personal equation resulted in several rejections. “Some were giving attitude and some had personal equation issues and some were not able to wake up for the morning call,” he said explaining how those simple issues added up to make it complicated. “Everyone had some reason obviously,” he added, emphasizing that the reasons for the replacements were varied.
Bhojani began working on the film when he joined the team during the reshoots after Aamir Khan convinced him to be an assistant director for which he got extra money of one thousand rupees per month. After all of this, he had a string of acting offers that came his way, mainly those of the hero’s friend, and he went on to act in around 20 to 25 films.
Interestingly, the role of Shekhar Malhotra, the most popular student in college, was first offered to Akshay Kumar. He did not pass the audition, and Milind Soman was chosen for that role. It also did not work well, so he was replaced by Deepak Tijori.
Directed by Mansoor Khan, ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’ had a brilliant ensemble cast, Aamir Khan, Ayesha Jhulka, Mamik Singh, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Pooja Bedi. Despite its pretty stormy production, the film has gone through the sands of time and is still interesting for audiences.
